Is there tea?
by Pandoala
Summary: Single parent Arthur Kirkland wakes up one morning to find a child on his door step. At the same time Yao Wang is looking for her lost son. Contains genderbent characters. Oneshot.


_Is there tea?_

It was just another day in the life of Arthur Kirkland. He was just packing up his things for the day to then leave the office to pick up his two sons at their mothers house. As he sat down in his car he took a quick look in the mirror where his eyes meet with the reflection of his emerald green eyes under his very (others would say extremely) thick eyebrows. He did a vain try to flatten his shaggy blond hair with his fingers before catching himself with what he was doing.

" _It`s not like I`m trying to make myself look good for her."_ He thought as he started the car and drove of.

He had meet Francis Bonefoye back in college. He studied economics, she studied art. They were a couple throughout their entire time there and when they had both graduated they married. They moved to London and five years ago the twins were born. Alfred and Matthew. Both blond even though Alfred`s hair was a shade darker than Matthews and Matthew`s hair was softer and wavier than Alfred's. Both blue-eyed even though Alfred`s eyes was brighter whereas Matthew`s was darker. But about there their similarities stopped. Alfred was exuberant, bubbly, loud and would run all over the place. Matthew was shy, quiet, calm and rather easy to overlook. Then two years ago something happened that turned Arthur`s world upside down. He walked in on Francis with another man. Arthur was devastated and after a long conversation they decided to divorce. Ever since they have lived at different parts of town with very different lives and with the kids living a week with each of them. For Arthur this was a quiet life which he enjoyed but he couldn`t help sometimes feeling that he missed somebody.

When he stopped by Francis apartment house she and the kids where already waiting outside for him. He hardly had the time to step out of the car before he had his arms full of Alfred.

"Hi Dad! You won`t believe what happened in daycare today! Thoris and I...!"

Arthur blocked out the rest in favor of talking to Francis to get it over with.

"Good day Francis. Is everything fine with you?"

"Oui, nothing to worry about handsome. The boys have been nice to." Francis answered as she pulled her slender fingers through her blond locks, her blue eyes filled with mirth. The thing about Francis was that after two years of divorce and various other relationships on her part she still kept up with the flitourios talk.

"Good." Arthur continued unfazed. "Are they packed and ready to go?"

"Yes we are!" Alfred said before his mom could say anything.

"That`s good. Now, say goodbye to mom and then we can get going."

Arthur didn`t have to say more than that before Alfred gave Francis a quick hug and then bounced into the car. Matthew looked between his parents for a moment before he gave his mother a long hug. Francis caressed his hair and muttered something in French before she let go of him with a kiss to his forehead. As Matthew walked over to the car Francis looked seriously at Arthur.

"Look after Matthew, sil vou plaite. The kids in daycare are quite hard on him."

Arthur nodded. It wasn`t the first time something like this happened. Either because Matthew was to quiet or because he got swept in with all the troubles Alfred brought.

"No worries. I will look after him."

Francis raised an elegant eyebrow.

"Really? Like when you forgot him in the park?"

She would never let him live that down.

"Not like in the park. I will look after him." Arthur answered with a sigh.

With that they said goodbye and Arthur got into the car again. As Alfred excitedly told him about the new superhero club he was starting with his friends at daycare Arthur couldn`t resist to smile. He looked forward to have the kids with him for the following week again.

Yao closed the door after her over vivid family. It was 10 pm and she was not just a little tired. Her family had showed up four hours earlier and since then there hadn`t been a silent moment. As the oldest out of her seven siblings she was considered like something of a family over head over the Wang family which made her small apartment their natural meeting spot. And since they were so close... Family meetings usually came around once a month.

She retied her ebony colored hair in its usual ponytail before she started to pick away the dishes. That was when she realized how quiet exactly it was.

She hadn`t... No.

After a quick look through her apartment she could tell, her son was missing.

The next morning Arthur woke up to the sound of the tele. Why on earth children went up so early in the morning on a Saturday to watch the blasted thing was above him. But since he was awake now he could just as well start the day and spend some time with the little demons.

He tiredly walked down the stairs to the kitchen and then straight to the front door to get the newspaper that should have arrived. Only problem was, he couldn`t open the front door even after unlocking it. It felt like somebody had putted a box in front of it. After some pushing he finally got it open and was greeted with a displeased whining sound. He looked around the door to see what had blocked it only to get the shock of his life.

" _HOLY COW, IT`S A KID!"_ He screamed inside his head as the child sat up and looked at him with extremely sleepy dark brown eyes. He looked like he was of Chinese origins, maybe a year younger than the twins and was not happy to have been woken up.

"I I`m so sorry, are you alright?" Arthur hurriedly asked. The kid didn`t respond but just looked at him.

"Are you hurt?"

"..."

"How long have you been out here?"

"..."

"Do you understand what I`m saying?"

"..." The kid blinked his eyes. Arthur felt like screaming.

After a deep breath and pinching the bridge of his nose Arthur carefully lifted the child up in his arms. The child didn`t protest so Arthur carried him inside. At first he was going to carry him (he thought it was a boy but with his hair reaching his chins he wasn`t too sure) into the living room but then thought about the two boys in it and the hundreds of questions they would ask that he wouldn`t be able to answer. So instead he carried the child up the stairs into his bedroom and putted him down on the bed. The child looked up at him with big serious eyes that made him look older than he was.

"Stay. Here." Arthur said firmly and slowly. The child showed no sign of understanding but stayed where he was. Arthur went back down and closed the door before he went in to the boys and told them to turn of the tele.

"Boys, we stand in a grave situation indeed." Arthur began. By the looks of it the boys didn`t understand what "grave" meant other than it was serious.

"There was a child sleeping in front of our door. I don`t know where he came from or what he did in front of our house but I need to take him to the police as soon as possible to make sure we find his parents. So I need your cooperation."

And then the hundred questions started.

"Does he have a name?" Matthew answered insecurely.

"How old?" Alfred asked excitedly.

"Where is his mom and dad?"

"What will the police do to him?"

"Do you think he needs a teddy?"

"Can we keep him?"

"What? No!" Arthur answered terrified. "Yes Matthew, a teddy is a good idea. I don`t know where his parents are but the police will find them, Alfred. He`s probably younger than you two so be a bit careful with him. And no, I don`t know his name. So right now, we need to make sandwiches. Everyone needs to eat. Then, we need to find you a babysitter..."

"What?! No?! I want to see the police!" Alfred exclaimed.

"I don`t think it`s a good idea Alfred. It will probably take a long time and you will be bored. Anyways, I will need your help to look after the kid to. Matthew, you look after him. Alfred, you come with me to make the sandwiches." Arthur concluded. With that he and Alfred went out to the kitchen while Matthew went upstairs. However it didn`t take long before Matthew came back with the message that the child was asleep. With that Arthur could relax slightly and make sure the boys ate before he went over to his neighbor across the street hoping he was awake.

Carlos had already been kind enough to babysit the boys at other times. He was rather laid back but short tempered and both kids liked him. Only problem was, he easily mixed the two up.

After ringing the doorbell a couple of times a very grumpy and tired Carlos answered the door. But as soon as Arthur had explained the situation to him he was clearly awake and ready to look after the boys. So Arthur went back to the house to make sure the boys where ready to leave and then went to wake up the kid again. He didn`t look to much happier about being woken up this time either and clutched hard onto Arthur`s warm cover. Arthur could understand that. It must have been a cold night sleeping on his doorstep. So he took a quilt and swept around him before he lifted him of the bed. Downstairs he picked up a couple of sandwiches for himself and the kid while Matthew offered him a carefully selected teddy bear. The boy carefully eyed the stuffed panda before breaking a big smile to Matthew and tightly hug the teddy. Matthew just smiled his shy smile back before picking up his own favorite teddy, a white polar bear that he carried practically everywhere, to get Alfred so they could go over to Carlos.

After locking the front door and promised to call Carlos as soon as there was any news Arthur drove off with the boy. The ride was silent. Time to time Arthur tried to start a conversation or ask something but he never got a response so in the end he stayed quiet. Good thing it didn`t take them to long to reach he police station.

It didn`t take them long to be questioned by the police either. However, the boy still refused to speak. Then the only thing left was to wait. Apparently no one had come in about a missing child yet and since the boy didn`t tell them where he was from there was no way of knowing how to find his parents. Even finding an interpitator proved to be difficult since they couldn`t be sure of the child origins. Then it was the question of where the boy would stay until the case was sorted out. But at that Arthur said that he could take care of him in the meantime. After all, it was probably not good for the boy to move too much between different people. After some hesitation the police agreed to that.

It was when all this was said and done that Arthur called Carlos.

"Have they found them?" Was the first question Carlos asked.

"No, they haven`t. And it might take them a while to do so, apparently no one has reported him missing." Arthur answered.

"That`s weird. But well, it`s still only pre non, maybe he hasn`t been gone that long. So what are they going to do about him?"

"For now he`s going to live with us. Usually they would call around for someone to look after him but I thought since he first came to us he might feel safer with people he recognize. At least until they find his parents. They are also looking around for interpitators but since they can`t tell what language Leon speaks..."

"Wait, Leon?" Carlos interrupted. "Is that the kid?"

Arthur giggled a bit embarrassed.

"Yes, well, it feels strange to just call him `kid` or `boy` so in my head I started to call him Leon."

"Is he ok with it?"

Arthur glanced over to where "Leon" sat playing with his teddy.

"I haven`t asked him yet."

"You should."

"He probably won`t answer."

"Not an excuse."

"I haven`t actually called him Leon to his face yet. It just slipped out." Arthur stated a bit annoyed.

"Fine. So are you coming to back soon?"

"Yes, I was just going to call you first." Arthur sighed.

"Fine. See you soon... Alfred don`t..!"

And with that the conversation was over. Arthur felt a bit worried over what his son might cause his dear neighbor but brushed it off and went back to the boy.

"Come now. We are going back home now."

And to Arthurs big amazement the boy stood up ready to come with him.

"Do you understand me?" He asked fascinated. The boy gave a nod.

"I haven't introduced myself had I?" Arthur started and pointed to himself. "I`m Arthur." He then pointed back to the child. "What is your name?"

The child didn`t respond. Arthur heaved a sigh. He had done that a lot today.

"Fine. For now I hope you don`t mind if I call you Leon." He pointed at the boy again as he said the name. "Leon" just cocked his head to the side. With that Arthur reached out his hand which Leon took and started to walk out.

It was a couple of hours later that Arthur was out with the boys grocery shopping. It`s strange how those things, the small, normal things still needs to be done even when something major has happened. You find a lost child on your doorstep and you are still out of milk. Whether it`s a good thing or bad, it just is. They were on their way back now, Arthur carrying the groceries while Alfred run ahead, pointing to everything that looked interesting and the other two following him.

"Long!" Leon lifted his head at this and that was all the warning Arthur got before a rather disleaved looking woman had ran from across the street, thrown herself at her knees and started hugging Leon. She was now talking rapidly in Chinese and for the first time today Leon responded calmly in the same language. Alfred and Matthew looked questionly at Arthur who looked just as questionly at the woman.

"Ehm... Excuse me?" He finally managed. The woman looked up at Arthur with golden brown eyes as if she hadn`t noticed his presence until now and stood up, still with Leon in a tight grasp.

"You must be the one who found my son. My brother told me that someone had reported a finding on a missing child that could be him to the police earlier. They said they would call him." She said in a calmer voice then when spoke to Leon a minute before.

"That could be me but I haven`t gotten any calls..." Arthur started before his brain said "Wait a minute". He put down the groceries and looked at his phone. He had forgotten to turn the sound up. Four missed calls from a governmental number. Oups.

He quickly called up the number while Leon's mother on her hand called to someone called "Kiku" telling that she had found her son so they could stop looking. Then asking if he could call a couple of people that apparently also had been looking while she called even more people. Arthur on his side got a response that the responsible officers would call him again as soon as they could find them. Needless to say he turned up the sound on the cellphone this time.

As soon as the woman was done talking to what seemed like three people at the same time she turned to Arthur again with her hand stretched out.

"I`m Yao Wang by the way. Thank you for finding Long."

Arthur took her hand and shock it with wonderment over how small yet firm her hand was.

"No problem. It was more like he found us. My name is Arthur Kirkland. And these are my sons Alfred and Matthew."

After a seconds hesitation he said with an uncharacteristic straightforwardness,

"Would you like to come over for some tea?"

It took nearly another hour of phone calls to properly settle things with the police and seven relatives of Yao who had helped searching until a quiet moment found Arthur and Yao in Arthur's kitchen with a cup of tea each. It had taken quite a while for Yao to let go of Long again but now he was playing with Alfred and Matthew upstairs.

"So, his name is Long?" Arthur noted a bit awkwardly.

"Yes. It means dragon." Yao answered a bit dreamily while tiredly looking into her teacup.

"I called him Leon." Arthur muttered.

"What? Why?" Yao asked, not blaming but curiously.

"It looked right on him. Maybe as if it was his sound, maybe it was how calm he seemed. Like a brave lion."

Yao could only nod to that. "Where did you find him?"

"He had fallen asleep on our doorstep. Don`t know why he picked ours, he must have walked quite a bit and it doesn`t look that comfortable."

"He is a strange child. Usually it seems like he always has a reason for his actions. But now he just said that there was someone he needed to find..."

"... He doesn`t speak English."

"My fault. I mostly speak in Chinese with him. I don`t doubt that he understands English perfectly but he never tries to speak it. That must change until he starts school."

"It will work out. There is plenty of time before then."

This caused Yao to smile.

"Why didn`t you go to the police the minute you noticed that he was gone?" Arthur asked. Yao sighed.

"I guess I panicked. I spent the whole night walking around the block hoping to find him. And when I went home in the morning I sincerely thought that he would have returned home on his own. Of course he hadn`t. That was when I called my siblings to help me look and my oldest younger brother realized that I hadn`t called the police. He was always the reasonable one. He was the one that went to the police and reported Long missing so I could continue looking."

"Wait, so all those people you called are your brothers and sisters?"

"Yes."

"How many are they?"

"Seven."

Arthur could only stare at the young woman. And he thought his three brothers and one sister was much.

"What about your parents?"

Yao avoided his eyes.

"Dead. They died many years ago now." Now it was Arthur's time to look down into the table.

"I`m sorry." Yao smiled comfortingly.

"No problem. We still got each other."

It took Arthur a moment to work up the courage to talk again.

"I`m sorry to ask but Longs father, he wasn't with you looking..."

"No. He`s not with us. He doesn`t even know Long exists."

"Ho?" Inquired Arthur. He didn`t want to push it but he was genuinely curious about the whole deal. Yao seemed to be able to tell.

"I was one of those girls who started to work right after high school. Partly to be able to support the family after our parents died. I have been working at the same restaurant this whole time. Anyhow, about five years ago there was a chef that worked temporarily there. We both liked each other and I made this really stupid thing and had a one night stand with him. He quieted and moved away soon after that and we saw no need to keep in touch with each other. And of course I got pregnant. But it has worked out fine. Me and Long, we are happy."

Arthur nodded. "It`s not too bad."

"No, it isn`t. How about you? Where is your children`s mother?"

"She is still living in London. We divorced two years ago."

"I´m sorry to hear that."

Arthur shrugged. "It was probably for the better."

Yao looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It was probably time to go home now. And yet..

Arthur kept looking at Yao. She looked tired and Leon... Long should be that to. They probably should go home soon. And yet...

"Is there more tea?" Yao finally said.

"Yes there should be." Arthur said with a smile both knowing that Yao and Long wouldn`t be going home to soon.

The end.


End file.
